


'cos i'm a champion

by orphan_account



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 06:29:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8239361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: jooheon never intended to go into thievery.





	

jooheon never intended to go into thievery. his parents wanted him to go into biochemistry, become a scientist, doctor, some fuckwit in a pristine white coat. safe and sound in a lab six feet underground. marry someone who fucks you once for the baby and twice on your birthday, and no other time. they wanted him to be carbon copies of themselves.

 

he decided that he'd let them down at age sixteen, when kihyun came along and asked him to steal jewelry back from his mother. he gave jooheon the keys and jooheon kept a quarter of what kihyun wanted when he was done. in and out in five minutes, a bit of rummaging here and there before jooheon found the poorly locked drawer full to the brim with diamonds and gold.

 

kihyun didn't want to let him go for a while, jooheon made him happy. and rich. he was arrested for armed robbery when they turned eighteen. jooheon hasn't seen him in years.

armed robbery never appealed to him. jooheon doesn't appreciate threatening someone with a gun and a knife to their throat. it's classless and uncouth; he was never the type.

 

/

 

after dropping out of college, he goes down the free and easy route. some would say that he's a lost soul, bouncing from manipulator to liar to manipulator. everyone in the underground scene knows him, knows what he's capable of; as soon as a benefactor dropped him, the next one would pick him up. he's used as a runner, a weasel to get into the tightest spots (and to get people out of them), a toy for people to make use of so they don't have to do their own dirty work. jooheon doesn't really care, he takes a bigger cut out of everything than they'd ever expect. hyunwoo thinks he's gone down the wrong path, that he can find salvation somewhere in the cracks where he's nestled -- jooheon laughs and moves on with whatever he's doing.

 

/

 

he settles with hyungwon for a while, after kihyun goes to prison. hyungwon is the quiet type, lanky and clumsy with his limbs. he doesn't say much and lets jooheon take half of the treasure. bathes and feeds jooheon, hopping from town to town, inn to inn. they sleep in separate beds and hyungwon never tries to romance him, an oddity in a world of hopelessly lonely men.

 

jooheon comes into their room one day, hyungwon's knocking back a shot of whiskey from a flask they'd bought in town. they're in a town with a name jooheon can't pronounce -- hyungwon had paid the guards at the shitty border security to shut up about their presence in town, lest some vigilante decide to hunt them down. they're wanted men in the big city, or at least hyungwon is.

 

"i want to go."

 

"where?" hyungwon lazily settles down the flask. he's looser today, calmer. not going to want to steal anything today. it's a good day.

 

jooheon wonders if he should wait until tomorrow, but he has nothing to be afraid of and he knows that. hyungwon is smart enough to know that jooheon is nothing more than a rental.

 

"i want to go off. without you." jooheon says quietly.

 

hyungwon stares at him for a good minute, and jooheon feels obliged to stay in place as hyungwon's eyes run down his body.

 

he nods. "okay. want to give you something before you leave."

 

 _something_ turns out to be a wad of cash. hyungwon isn't one for materialistic treasures or sentimental bullshit. the action warms jooheon's heart, and he smiles, his duffel slung over his shoulder. he gives hyungwon a quick bow in thanks. hyungwon closes the door, and jooheon never sees him again.

 

/

 

the days after jooheon leaves hyungwon are a blur. he isn't sure why he decided to go, but something told him that it was time. jooheon isn't built for commitment or eternal servitude -- it just scandalizes him. the wad of cash stays unspent, except for once when jooheon stops for food.

 

he makes his way halfway across the dessert and through a good number of towns with no border security before he bumps into a grave robber as he seeks refuge from a storm -- and that's how he meets hoseok.

 

/

 

shin hoseok is an asshole -- that's what jooheon understands, from the very moment hoseok shoves him out of the crypt they're both huddling in. jooheon rolls, mouth pushed into dirt and mud and sand, rain beating on his back down for a moment before he rights himself.

 

he wipes his face off with his sleeve, crawling back into the crypt. he can see the other boy's face in the crypt, leering at him in the faint darkness. he isn't even concerned with staying dry now -- he's pissed off. "hey, idiot, what'd you do that for?"

 

"i was here first," come hoseok's reply. jooheon takes a deep breath to compose himself. hyungwon had allowed him to let the furious, youthful spirit in him to die down, but the bastard in the crypt is riling him up. jooheon murmurs a silent apology to his old partner. "there isn't enough room here, loser."

 

"fuck off." jooheon shoves past hoseok.

 

/

 

hoseok disappears off jooheon's radar for a few more days after the storm, until jooheon strides into a bar where hoseok's holding someone at gunpoint.

  
"if it isn't the boy himself," hoseok giggles, his elbow locked around the cashier's neck. "come on, help me out."

 

jooheon doesn't help him, but he does bum a bit of the cash hoseok has when the criminal isn't watching, as hoseok's threatening the cashier into silence. he's a silent observer, and he can feel the pathetic cashier staring holes into his front and back as he watches hoseok do his thing.

 

it leaves him with a funny feeling in his stomach. he doesn't like confrontation, doesn't like the things that armed robbery's associated with. but he likes the money that comes with it, so he agrees to stay with hoseok when the boy proposes a partnership. neither of them know what they're doing.

 

hoseok agrees to tone it down when jooheon suggests grave-robbing instead of armed robbery. it has just enough of the rebelling-against-authority shtick that excites hoseok, and just enough of what jooheon's good at to comfort him. it's an uncomfortable partnership, jooheon never fully trusts hoseok in the time that they're together.

 

even if they do end up kissing. even if he ends up getting fucked into the mattress they share, because hoseok's a cheapskate and won't spend too much on two beds when one dingy mattress will suffice. even if he thinks he hates hoseok.

 

/

 

hoseok's a selfish boy and doesn't like peace reigning for too long. it puts him on edge. jooheon likes peace, and stability and safety. they don't see eye to eye on a lot of things.

 

jooheon runs with money stuffed into the hem of his pants when hoseok pulls a gun on him as they argue. he clicks the safety off and it finally occurs to jooheon that hoseok is fully willing to kill him right here, right now. has been willing to do so since that day in the shops, when jooheon watched him rob the cashier blind.

 

he runs. hoseok shoots after him, enough to scare him before he stops shooting and laughs. he taunts jooheon until jooheon gets far enough.

 

/

 

jooheon keeps it up until he reaches the town where he left hyungwon. but by then hyungwon is gone, and he can't ask anyone where he went because they weren't supposed to know. hyungwon is flawless at wiping any trace of his existence behind. he's so good that jooheon's not even sure what he looks like any more.

 

he's dependent on someone's presence and jooheon rushes his way through people. there are so many faces and it stresses him out, so he closes his eyes through it all. he doesn't want to remember because he knows he's made too many bad decisions he'll never forget any of this, never.

 

he's a prime target because of the amount of money he has, and jooheon's penniless in a matter of days. he's a lost dog on the street, mangled and pathetic and hollow, emptied out. doesn't even know it when hepasses out on the street, when his legs are too weak to hold him up.

 

/

 

"i hear you're a petty thief," changkyun says.

 

jooheon wants to run, but in this bed, in this warmth, in the stare of the boy sitting in front of him, he can't.

 

he shakes his head, the only thing he can do now. "i'm a burglar, yes. but i'm not a petty thief."

                                                                               

"i hear you've been with lots of people," the boy says, sounding like he pities jooheon. jooheon doesn't blame him. jooheon pities jooheon. "people who use you, people who think you're just a burglar for them to use."

 

"i guess." jooheon feels flat under the gaze of the other boy. he clearly knows a lot more than he lets on, and it's making jooheon scared.

 

"i'm lim changkyun," changkyun says simply. "you're interesting. i'm interested in you. i think you'll be good for me. i'll be good for you."

 

jooheon laughs, because so many people have said the same thing. bullshit about him being different, and how they'd use him differently. this joker isn't the first one to have pulled this, and it cuts a lot deeper than it should.

 

"lee jooheon," he sticks out his hand, feeling empty, "how do you do?" 

 

 

 

 

 

_end_

**Author's Note:**

> less inspired by the song but more inspired by a crappy phone game i've been obsessed with for a while


End file.
